Financial institutions provide a vast array of financial services and products to customers and potential customers. Traditionally, the process for selling a product to a customer and servicing a customer has been predominantly in person, over the telephone, or via the Internet. When communicating with a customer service representative, even over the telephone or in person, that representative may not be able to answer a customer's questions about a particular product or service outside their area of expertise. As a result, the customer must be directed to an expert, if one is even available.
Typically, the customer must enter details about themselves and their desired transaction in order to be connected to the appropriate representative. When connecting with a call center, the customer can become frustrated and spend unnecessary time just trying to connect with a representative than can assist. Moreover, if the customer has traveled to a branch or physical location of a financial institution, that particular branch may not employ any representatives who can answer the customer's questions. Obviously, such a situation proves frustrating for customers and can result in a lost sales opportunity for the financial institution.
From the customers' point of view, customers desire a personal experience of a face-to-face interaction with an expert who can answer a question about a product or help a customer to properly complete a form. From the financial institution's point of view, the financial institution cannot reasonably expect to employ an expert on each of the vast number of products and services it offers in every branch at all times.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system and method for automatically selecting and connecting a customer service representative to a user of a financial product or service without requiring the user to enter additional information about the product or service they are using.